Chess Improvement

Chess Training: Chess Openings and the ECO

April 10th, 2009

Keep in mind that if you look through the ECO (Encyclopedia of Chess Openings), many openings only have one or two moves. There are a number of variations of certain openings that will go further but most chess openings (book openings) do NOT got out to 25 moves.

In fact, most openings are seven moves or less. Once you get past any specific opening of one to seven or eight moves, you will enter the middle game, and there is no encyclopedia for middle game play because the mathematical possibilities are staggering for the number of moves.

I happen to like the English opening and that opening is just one move …c4. Now, beyond that, there are a number of variations from that point on. There is the Adorjan Defense, Jaenisch Defense, Anglo-Dutch Defense, and many, many others and they all have anywhere from two to seven moves.

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